Crisis Management

Game Plan

“Any deep crisis is an opportunity to make your life extraordinary in some way.”

- Martha Beck, Author

“When written in Chinese, the word ‘crisis’ is composed of two characters. One represents danger and the other represents opportunity."

- John F. Kennedy, 35th U.S. President
Summary

The business fire is blazing, and you have been provided the opportunity to lead the team that will find a way to bring resolution to a crisis.

If this is the first time the FIX IT responsibility has been placed on your shoulders, DON’T PANIC! The Protect the Team playbook provides the outline for you to build a strong plan that you will use to navigate to success.

Playbook Chapters

1) Don't Let Them See You Sweat

The business fire is blazing and you have been provided the opportunity to lead a team that will find a way to bring resolution to a crisis. Internally you are excited, nervous and if the challenge is daunting enough, you may be fearful of failing. Before you start fixing the issue it is important that you accept the first rule that you “don’t let them see you sweat”. 

 

The Why: 

Above You

  • The leaders above you have placed responsibility on your shoulders to lead so they believe you have the emotional resilience to lead others.
  • If those above you sense the situation could cause you to break, the seed of doubt will hover over your every action.
  • Loss of confidence impacts your leadership because it paints the picture that you were not prepared properly for the opportunity. 

Below You

  • Those below you need to have confidence that you will not emotionally falter.
  • If the Team senses your emotional instability, fear will rapidly build
  • Most people do not want the pressure that comes with leadership, but what is even worse is a sense that the leader is not stable and confident in their own ability to resolve the issue.

Practical Action:

  • Identify an Emotional safety place/person to vent to outside of work. (Don’t vent with those in the fight)
  • Reach out to, or gain a mentor that is not directly tied to the crisis you are tasked with leading the resolution. 
  • In the middle of the fight you have to take time to separate from the intensity by doing something that for a brief moment takes your mind off of the issue. The goal is to prevent the perception that the moment is getting to you. So eat your favorite meal, play your favorite vinyl, take out a little time to to recharge your spirit. 

As a leader in a crisis it is important to remember the Russian proverb that increased in usage after Ronald Reagan used the phase multiple times in the 1980s, “Trust, but verify”.

 

The Why:

Before you build your mitigation plan, and before you take action, first take the time to confront reality. Do not take your best friend’s word for it, you yourself must go and understand the problem from top to bottom. Most individuals are not trained to provide the full risk of an issue in a proper manor so you must own knowing the issue first hand. Do not make the mistake that the right information will be volunteered to you. Go touch the issue, look the problem in the eye yourself to varify that you have full understanding of the issue. 

After understanding the situation it is important that you do not communicate targets that will seem unachievable. Instead of telling the team to just hit a date, free the team to work the art of the possible and ask what needs to occur to reduce flow. 

 

Practical Action:

  • Interview the holders of knowledge  
  • Create a visual representation of the issue, or write out your understanding of the issue. Have the experts review your documented understanding of the situation to confirm you understand the reality of the situation. 
  • Identify and document the gap to the target

A strong team is required to resolve a crisis in a timely fashion. If the problem is large enough you must remember that as a leader your main role is to guide the Team to victory. You cannot perform all of the work so for urgent situations quickly bring in people you trust to help you lead and execute. 

The Why:

  • You do not have time to perform trust worthiness assessments, you need to surround yourself with those that you know are capable to fill key areas of responsibility.  
  • Not everyone is built for pressure situations so be mindful of those you do not have history with. 

Practical Action:

  • Gain approval from your leader to bring in the right individuals 
  • If you do not have history with a key teammate for the recovery plan, set up a quick test to identify if they can handle pressure
    • For quick test allow for failure that you can contain so you 1) prove if the person is capable & 2) have evidance to show others why you may need to bring in a new person to help in that role. 

As the leader you give definition to what the target and goal is for the team. It is important that you take the time to create a target that forces the team to push past the minimum requirement for success. Since this is a crisis, chances are most of your opportunities will not come home. 

 

The Why:

  • If you allow everyone to chase the collective bare minimum then when one opportunity does not come home everyone fails. This is not good leadership since just one person or team has a high likely hood of not hitting the mark. 
  • If you do not define a clear target/goal for a team you run the risk that people will define their own that will not be integrated, or fit for purpose. 

 

Practical Action:

  • ‘”Move the Goal Post to the Parking Lot” = Set the target pass the goal line so everyone sprints through the line.
    • Make it clear that the goal is for every person or team to set a goal past their need and strive to hit it so they can build up reserves to protect others.  If you define the WHY as protecting others people will not see it as wasted effort
  • Write down the Target & Goal, Then REPEAT… REPEAT… REPEAT!
  • Create a Symbol or Visualization that reminds people about the Target / Goal.  

You and your team have been immersed in this issue for days so you have the benefit of understanding the evolving situations over many hours. Around the corner you have a status meeting with your leadership so what strategy should you use to communicate in a confident way? When the issue is complicated or complex you have the challenge to communicate the status of the situation, plan and O&Rs within 30 to 60 minutes. Don’t panic, all you need to do is tell the story in your standard PtT format. 

The Why:

  • What not to do:
    • Some people spend the whole time communicating a doom and gloom so the audience is left assuming there is a lack of leadership since the solution was not the focus.
    • Some people do not level set the risk they are facing so leadership could be left with a false sense of the possible impact
  • A good leader is able to guide the conversation through the description of the issue, actions in progress and the future state where the target is met.

Practical Action:

  • Use D.F.I. Strategy
    • Start with the  Displeasure of the situation so everyone understands the seriousness of the problem. 
    • Communicate Desired Final State so it is clear the target you are leading the team to. 
    • Provide your Initial step that you are taking that will lead us to the final solution in detal.

You have just completed your initial sprint to build your list of opportunities that need to come home to resolve the issue. As a leader, in the back of your mind you must maintain a push to be looking and driving others to find/develop additional opportunities. Most people will switch their brains over to trying to complete a project or close the opportunity. The smart leadership strategy is to constantly increase the chances for success so you must continue to COLLECT Opportunities. 

 

The Why:

  • The initial plan you develop will not withstand time, so you want to be constantly adding opportunities so you do not have a short fall.
  • If you have a relentless focus on adding opportunities to protect the team, others will assimilate and begin to adopt this same focus. 

Practical Action:

  • Make Protection the focus for each person and/or Team so they are focused on over achieving 
  • Create a visualization or symbol that can be seen by the team to reinforce the need to close opportunities and add new ones.

At the beginning of the crisis you most likely will be inundated with so many meetings and request for updates that your frequency of communication is not yours to control. After you get through this phase you should quickly establish a communication plan that avoids your leadership asking you “is the plan on track?”. Beating people to the punch in communication provides confidence in your leadership.

The Why:

  • When there is a gap in communication humans by default begin to build concern that the plan may not succeed.
    • This is due to the realization that the time available to succeed decreases with every hour/day
    • If your leadership does not have a good status on a reoccurring basis you are purposely causing unneeded anxiety

Practical Action:

  • Establish a standard status report that a) calls out the target that would resolve the problem, b) provides an update on actions needed to realize opportunities and c) communicates if the team is on or off plan.
  • Set up a weekly or daily cadence to communicate the status report to all stakeholders

“Don’t Peak too Soon!” As the leader you give definition to setting the climax for the team. Proactively set the milestones and waypoints for the team so they continue to aggressively climb until you reach the true mountain top that represents closing out all of the high risk items. Do not let the team think they are done sprinting until you are confident that success will occur. 

 

The Why:

  • The climax is not the end of the journey, but it does represent an important part of the RCCA journey since a confidence shift occurs and the finish line is visible.  

Practical Action:

  • Define the major actions that need to close to secure victory and share them with the whole team.
  • When you are nearing the climax, rally the troops for another push to make sure the team does not take the eye off the ball. 

In 2009 I was on the University of Arizona football team that was 23 seconds away from beating the Oregon Ducks to become the best team in the PAC conference. The fans started to storm the field to celebrate since it was 4th down, but unfortunately the game was not over. We would end up losing in double overtime and I would be denied the opportunity to play in the prestigious Rose Bowl Game. But this unfortunate event highlights the important lesson to close out all actions to secure victory.

 

The Why:

  • When a goal converts over to a probable outcome people naturally start to take their foot off the gas
  • A failure at the end is the most defeating because lack of focus on finishing is often the cause in business

Practical Action:

  • When the crisis is near the end, take the time to pause and re-rally the team to finish strong.
  • Never pre-celebrate as a leader. 

Great leaders recognize the type of praise needed for specific team members and whole teams. Some people need the encouragement and appreciation halfway through the marathon when the finish line is no where in site. Some teams need the vocal praise after a win. Some individuals appreciate the personal note that let’s them know that you see them, and know they will make a positive impact. Strive to be a versatile coach that takes the time to learn what motivates others and how they like to be praised.  

The Why:

  • “People will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel” – Maya Angelou
  • Complex issues do not get solved by a sole individual, it is the team that accomplishes the goal so make sure your team feels the appreciation. 

Practical Action:

  • Get to know the individuals on the team so when you thank them you can incorporate something that is unique to them
  • Make sure your encouragement is genuine. If someone does not think you mean what you are saying then a complement may be taken as a slight. 

True North, Head West

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MEAT Description

“For everyone who lives on milk is unskilled in the word of righteousness, since he is a child. But solid food is for the mature, for those who have their powers of discernment trained by constant practice”  (Hebrews 5:13-14, ESV)

Meat symbolizes the solid food of deeper features of a lesson. The difference is not in kind of truth, but degree of depth. The information that is contained in the Meat category for the PtT principles is prepared for the mature consumer that is aware that it takes time and effort to understand, practice, master, and then coach others.

Avoid stunting your leadership growth with a liquid only diet, be willing to sacrifice more time-consuming denser media (ie books / etc.). Commit to being vulnerable enough to evaluate yourself, identify the opportunities for change and then live out leadership principles.

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